1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatus for removing the outer skin from garlic cloves.
2. Description of Related Art
Apparatus is available for treating onions, for example, to remove the outer skins or inedible outer layers making them available for immediate use. In the known apparatus, the individual onion bulbs are held by a cup-shaped holder, for example, and are subjected to a blast of pressurized air to remove the outer skin. Also, in certain of these apparatus there is a preliminary step in which the bulb ends are cut off prior to outer skin removal. Exemplary of the known onion peeling techniques are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,602,279 and 3,485,279.
On the other hand, equipment for removing the inedible outer layers of garlic cloves on a quantity basis has not been found to be commercially available or in the published literature. Peeling garlic poses a more complicated problem than peeling onions, in that, when originally picked, garlic is in the form of a bulb which has an outer inedible skin over it that must first be removed before you can break the bulb down to its component cloves, after which the individual clove skins must be peeled off. Equipment is available for taking garlic bulbs and removing the outer skins to release the cloves, which equipment is sometimes referred to as a "cracker". However, these crackers do not remove the skin from the individual cloves, but merely the bulb skin.